What's the point of ranking MBAs?

It was a happy day on campus. Professors were congratulating each other as they walked through the faculty dining lounge, e-mails were circulating among students about the news, and it was the hot topic among the smokers standing outside the back door of the business school.

York University's Schulich School of Business had been ranked No. 18 in the world and No. 1 in Canada in the annual Financial Times rankings of global business schools.

As a student attending the school, naturally I was pleased with the results, but it also made me reflect on the value of ranking MBA programs.

Of the numerous rankings, the FT survey is considered by many as the most authoritative, using a myriad of different criteria, such as average salary of graduates, career progress, student-body diversity and quality of faculty to cobble together its final scores.

By contrast, some of the other high-profile rankings just use one factor to award their scores.

Rankings are a big deal for business schools.

They help the schools market programs to potential students concerned not only with the quality of their education but also their return on investment (most programs, after all, run $20,000 to $30,000 a year).

They are also a method for faculty to gauge performance against their peers.

And many believe they can help enhance the market value of those holding MBA degrees from the highly-ranked schools.

But most of all, they affect the image and reputation of the program, which can, in turn, bring more recruiters to campus -- thus helping more students find that important first job out of school.

And since business school administrations worldwide know the key goal of every MBA student is to get a good job upon graduation, they are constantly trying to improve their rankings with innovative techniques that will both attract attention from rankings' compliers and attract top students. These include constructing a new building, signing strategic alliances with foreign business schools or changing the traditional two-year length of the program.

All of which is good news for students.

Of course, as with any external scorecard, there are critics.

Some schools say that these types of rankings are too time consuming for alumni (who make up a large part of the survey base) and, as a result, encourage their graduates to only participate in a few of the studies - reducing a school's visibility in the sea of rankings and making some findings questionable.

There are others that argue that because no two business programs are the same, they are often comparing apples to oranges. Others argue that pursuing an MBA is an individual pursuit and, while a school may be highly rated, that doesn't mean it is suited to every student. Others still say rankings are just a marketing tool to sell the magazines that publish them and note that no two publications list the exact same schools atop their scorecards.

Indeed, that last discrepancy was noted in a recent issue of The Economist magazine, which, coincidentally, has its own scorecard of global MBA programs.

In September, the Economist Intelligence Unit placed Spain's IESE Business School at the top of its list of the world's full-time MBA programs. A few weeks later, however, The Wall Street Journal rated Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business the best business school. Both of those go against the recent FT survey, which rated the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania the No. 1 program in the world for the third year in a row.

So which ranking should one believe? The answer depends on what you're looking for, as each survey separates itself by going after a different user of business education. The Wall Street Journal study, for example, solely gauges the opinions of corporate recruiters while the Economist takes more a "student-centric" approach.

But, aside from your personal requirements, any high ranking may be of benefit to you as a student.

"Brand names matter," says the website of Hubert Silly, founder of the MBA Center, which helps non-English-speaking students get into North American business schools. Rankings help build a program's credentials, which has a direct impact on the value of the MBA, he says.

What do MBA students think of the rankings? The general consensus on campus is that the rankings do serve one key purpose: they help us find jobs.

Human resources departments don't always have the time nor the resources to visit every school and talk to every MBA student when trying to fill positions. The rankings give recruiters an independent study to help make decisions about which schools to visit.

In addition to bringing more recruiters and students to campus, improved scores make alumni feel proud to affiliate themselves with the school, increasing participation in mentorship programs and financial donations -- all of which help attract top-notch faculty who develop successful graduates and further help the school's score in the rankings.

What's more, just like corporate behemoths battling for brand equity and market share, the competition among schools for that top spot in the rankings ensures business programs stay innovative and strive to deliver the best education possible.

And in the end, all of the users of business education -- students, professors, school administrators, recruiters, companies and the customers they serve -- win.

Richard Bloom is a former Report on Business writer who has enrolled in York University's Schulich School of Business to obtain an MBA.